Galavanting through the galaxy far, far away with seemingly effortless literary ease, prolific “Star Wars” author, Alexander Freed has been catapulted to the top tier of sci-fi writers. He is confidently able to navigate far off alien worlds and complex plotlines via their imposing storytelling skills, engaging characters, and vivid descriptions.
Freed accumulated an impressive resume of video game work during his many years at Bioware and EA Dice/Electronic Arts, then later used that valuable experience to pen “Star Wars: Battlefront: Twilight Company,” the “Rogue One: A Star Wars Story” novelization, and the bestselling “Star Wars: Alphabet Squadron” trilogy.
The Austin, Texas based creator’s muscular prose and narrative techniques have made him a fan favorite in the vast “Star Wars” realm, and his new work, “Star Wars: The Mask of Fear” (“Reign of the Empire”) hits Feb 25, 2025 from Del Rey Books.
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The 496-page hardcover follows Mothma, Organa, and Gerrera as their instincts lead them to reveal truths about this newly-formed authority and its hidden agenda.
“A lot of the core concepts come from the Lucasfilm side and they approached with something there,” Freed tells Space.com. “For me, the excitement of the time period here, is that I tend to think of ‘Star Wars’ as a setting with plenty of room for grey area stories and moral ambiguity, but there are very clear lines of good and evil as well. There’s no version of ‘Star Wars’ in which you look at the Emperor and go, ‘Well, maybe he had some good ideas.’ No, the Emperor is evil. And the Jedi and Luke at their best are good. Everything else exists somewhere in there. This is a period where the remains true but no one really knows that the Emperor is evil.
“As far as the public is concerned, this guy just won the worst war in living memory. The Clone Wars were this horrendous affair and Palpatine has put an end to it. Yes, he’s declared himself Emperor but he’s not the embodiment of all evil. There’s not even a Death Star out there. On the absolute good side, the Jedi have sort of been tarnished in recent years. War scrapes away at the shining morality of any organization. So there aren’t these absolutes for the average person to look out to. They’re all just trying to figure out what comes next in this very strange time in the galaxy. That sense of confusion, of uncertainty for the future, and grief for the things that seemed true in the past felt like there was a lot of interesting drama there.”
Amid this uneasy post-Order 66 existence, “The Mask of Fear’s” continuity is confined to the first year after the terrors seen in “Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith.”
“Book 2 is being worked on by Rebecca Roanhorse at the moment,” he adds. “That book will chronicle the full generation and the rise of the Rebellion. For ‘Mask of Fear’ it was much more about putting out those very early seeds of what will lead to ‘Andor’ and ‘Rogue One,’ and eventually ‘A New Hope.’ There’s no Rebellion in these first months. It’s just normal people trying to figure out how bad is it going to get?”
Coincidentally, Freed has often joked in the past about wanting me to pen a Mon Mothma novel and that alone might have secured Lucasfilm’s assignment regardless of his prior “Star Wars” forays.
“I think she’s a really interesting character who exists with a lot of internal contradictions that are also her source of strength,” Freed explains. “She’s the pacifist who’s leading the revolutionary movement against the government. There’s lots of fun stuff to do with Mon. Bail and Saw are their own sides of that particular triangle and we tackle those in different ways. We see Saw mostly as an outsider and Bail is the only one who actually knows what’s going on. But in some ways that kind of puts blinders on it too. The only thing he’s thinking about is Palpatine as a Sith, instead of the larger politics of this circumstance and what do the people think about the Jedi and how will that have an impact. It felt like a fun dynamic group of characters and a time period that hadn’t been explored to death.”
Forces that keep Freed returning to the Star Wars universe and pushing his craft to new heights involves reader expectations and the boundless creative realm he is able to explore.
“There’s something enormously rewarding about writing for an audience that’s actually out there,” he notes. “It’s an absolute privilege to have someone offer you the chance. There are people who want this, and so often it’s hard to find what people want. The reason why I haven’t burned out on it is that I do tend to think of every ‘Star Wars’ project as my last. You never know if you’re going to be invited back. Fortunately it’s a big enough universe with enough different stuff going on that you can tell a lot of stories there. I’m not creatively tapped out yet.”
“Star Wars: The Mask of Fear” arrives from Del Rey on Feb. 25, 2025.
Here’s the official synopsis for Star Wars: The Mask of Fear (Reign of the Empire):
“‘In order to ensure the security and continuing stability, the Republic will be reorganized into the first Galactic Empire! For a safe and secure society!’
“With one speech and thunderous applause, Chancellor Palpatine brought the era of the Republic crashing down. In its place rose the Galactic Empire. Across the galaxy, people rejoiced and celebrated the end of war—and the promises of tomorrow. But that tomorrow was a lie. Instead, the galaxy became twisted by the cruelty and fear of the Emperor’s rule.
“During that terrifying first year of tyranny, Mon Mothma, Saw Gerrera, and Bail Organa face the encroaching darkness. One day, they will be three architects of the Rebel Alliance. But first, each must find purpose and direction in a changing galaxy, while harboring their own secrets, fears, and hopes for a future that may never come unless they act.”
“The Mask of Fear” is the first book in a fresh “Reign of the Empire” trilogy set just after the conclusive events of “Star Wars Episode 3: Revenge of the Sith,” with the Galactic Empire now ruling with an iron fist and seeds of discontent over its tyrannical power grab already starting to germinate that will soon grow towards the Rebellion’s decisive emergence as seen in the Disney+ TV series, “Andor.”